1/27/09 from Ken Agee

We had the 1^st quarter West Garland Neighborhood Association (WGNA) meeting at The ROC, located at 3375 Edgewood. We also have reservations for this location for the April 28^th meeting.

There was a follow-up issue centered on the fact that Jean Redfern of the City had identified an existing neighborhood association north of Walnut, between Plano & Jupiter Roads. This was verified, but it is believed that it’s existence isn’t well known by residents, so we decided (tentatively) to keep our existing boundaries.

There was also follow-up discussion regarding previous questions about the Neighborhood Vitality program and other general maintenance issues regarding the condition of some sidewalks, and the need for some strategically placed speed humps. It was verified that a long stretch of Maydelle St has chronic sidewalk damage as the result of large trees growing between the sidewalk and the street curb. The same problem exists on Western Dr. between Maydelle and Shiloh Rd. Richard McGough thought there’s a possibility that the City may have had a hand in planting the trees as part of a previous beautification program, and therefore might be more sympathetic than normal with getting the sidewalks fixed. Otherwise, the City’s Code of Ordinance is set up such that the homeowners are mostly held responsible for upkeep of the sidewalk. Under normal circumstances, the City offers a “fifty-fifty” program where the City will match the cost of repair on a dollar-for-dollar basis. Another program is called the Neighborhood Vitality Matching Grant Program. It offers the homeowners a better matching ratio (usually the City pays 85% or more), but requires all the homeowners be in agreement, and also requires quite a bit of work from the person filing the request. At this point, we will wait for Richard to see if these streets are a “special case”, before we try to do any more with this topic.

Barby Dike updated us on the status of the Hollis Hollabaugh City Park. She said the drawings looked impressive (closed in building with kitchen, etc, plus a pavilion), and they have started surveying the area and doing initial ground-leveling.